Beneficiary sues estate's representative

On behalf of Levins & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Estate Planning on Friday, January 17, 2014.

When it comes to your estate in Lee County, Florida, planning what will happen to it after your death can be overwhelming. However, if you want to ensure that the people you love will get the things you desire them to have, it is absolutely necessary to speak with an estate planning attorney and get everything in writing.

Doing so may have helped one man’s beneficiary avoid a lot of headache. The beneficiary, a longtime friend of the man, claims that the man gave him a check for $100,000 a week before he died, but has been unable to cash it because the estate’s representative believes it is forged.

The man who died worked as a professor at the University of Maine at Augusta for 42 years before he retired in 2012. His estate is estimated to be valued at between $750,000 and $1 million. Because the man did not have a spouse, children or other close relatives, he left the majority of his estate to the university where he was employed in order to create a scholarship fund. In his will, he left his friend a car and two gold watches, but never said anything about the $100,000.

The estate’s representative believes the signature on the check is a fake. Because of the high-stakes nature of this situation, the beneficiary did the right thing by filing a lawsuit against the representative and bank. Hopefully with the help of the court’s handwriting experts, the truth will come out and this matter will be settled fairly.

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